December 1972

Purchase To Read More

Digital Issue ?Read or download this issue’s articles online. *A printed copy of this issue is not included. $7.99

Print + Digital All Access Subscription ?Read or download this issue’s articles online. Plus, subscribe to get Print, Online and Tablet access to the next 12 new issues to be released as well as Online access to archives back to 1845. $99.00

Features

High Technology in China

A report on a visit to China in which the author observed the state of such fundamental areas of modern industrial derelopment as electronics, computers and instrumentation

By Raphael Tsu

Learning in Newborn Kittens

A series of experiments demonstrates that, although kittens seem virtually helpless at birth, they quickly learn to find their way to their favorite nipple and their home territory

By Jay S. Rosenblatt

When the Mediterranean Dried Up

Evidence acquired on a recent cruise by the deep-sea drilling vessel Glomar Challenger has revealed that six million years ago the Mediterranean basin was a desert 10,000 feet deep...

By Kenneth J. Hsü

Yarn

The age-old technology of twisting fibers to make a yarn changes as new fibers are developed, some designed to look and feel like cotton, wool or silk and others to have entirely new properties...

By Stanley Backer

The Tensile Strength of Liquids

Like solids, liquids tear when they are placed under sufficient tension. Their strength has important consequences in nature and technology, and its measurement calls for special tactics...

By Robert E. Apfel

The Superior Colliculus of the Brain

The cells of this small region in the mammalian midbrain appear to help the eye detect and follow moving objects. They may do the same for the stimuli of hearing and touch

By Barbara Gordon

Prematurity and Uniqueness in Scientific Discovery

A molecular geneticist reflects on two general historical questions: (1) What does it mean to say a discovery is "ahead of its time"? (2) Are scientific creations any less unique than artistic creations?...

By Gunther S. Stent

The Mesozoa

Animals that consist of perhaps only 20 cells live in a remarkably restricted habitat: the urine of the octopus and other cephalopods. They may provide clues to the development of many-celled organisms...

By Elliot A. Lapan and Harold Morowitz

Departments

50 and 100 Years Ago, December 1972

Science and the Citizen, December 1972

Letters

Letters to the Editors, December 1972

Recommended

Books, December 1972

Mathematical Recreation

Mathematical Games, December 1972

Amateur Scientist

The Amateur Scientist, December 1972

Departments

The Authors, December 1972

Annual Index 1972

Bibliography, December 1972

Purchase To Read More

Digital Issue ?Read or download this issue’s articles online. *A printed copy of this issue is not included. $7.99

Print + Digital All Access Subscription ?Read or download this issue’s articles online. Plus, subscribe to get Print, Online and Tablet access to the next 12 new issues to be released as well as Online access to archives back to 1845. $99.00

Expertise. Insights. Illumination.

Discover world-changing science. Explore our digital archive back to 1845, including articles by more than 150 Nobel Prize winners.

Scientific American is part of Springer Nature, which owns or has commercial relations with thousands of scientific publications (many of them can be found at www.springernature.com/us). Scientific American maintains a strict policy of editorial independence in reporting developments in science to our readers.